Potamipivirus A

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Picornavirus
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Eel picornavirus (EPV) F15/05 was isolated from a common eel (Anguilla anguilla) of the Lake Constance on the river Rhine (Philipps et al., 2010; Fichtner et al., 2013). This eel presented with symptoms of haemorrhages at the head and the tail. EPV was isolated from kidney, heart, spleen and brain samples, and was propagated in eel kidney 1 (EK-1) cells. The virus is pathogenic in experimentally infected glass eels and induces a high mortality.

Sequence analysis of almost the complete genome (7496 nt) revealed a novel picornavirus clade that was placed close to the root of the picornavirus phylogenetic tree (Philipps et al., 2010; Fichtner et al., 2013). The open reading frame includes 6777 nucleotides and encodes a polyprotein of 2259 amino acids. The sequence shows closest similarity to Ljungan virus (3D: 41.8 % aai), human parechovirus (3D: 35.4 % aai), duck hepatitis A virus (3D: 34.0 % aai) and seal picornavirus (3D: 27.9 % aai). The genome organization corresponds to that of Ljungan virus, i.e. it has no leader peptide, an aphthovirus-like 2A1 and a 2A2 gene region with the H-box/NC sequence motives of the human H-rev 107 proteins; the ALTXKAXXXKXXL motif which is common to H-rev 107 proteins and parechoviruses is modified. EPV has an unique 3A gene region. Whether VP0 undergoes maturation cleavage is presently unknown. Low sequence homology to the other known picornaviruses suggests that the EPV lineage may belong to a novel picornavirus genus. Fichtner et al. (2013) suggested that eel picornavirus 1 should belong to a new species (suggested name "Anguavirus") in a novel genus. [Modified from Philipps et al., 2010 and Fichtner et al., 2013]

Eel picornavirus 1 is classified as a species (Potamipivirus A) in the genus Potamipivirus.

Genome organisation:

VPg+5'UTR[1AB-1C-1D-2A^npgp/2A^H-box/NC-2B-2C/3A-3B^VPg-3C^pro-3D^pol]3'UTR-poly(A)

References

Fichtner, D., Philipps, A., Groth, M., Schmidt-Posthaus, H., Granzow, H., Dauber, M., Platzer, M., Bergmann, S.M., Schrudde, D., Sauerbrei, A. and Zell, R. (2013). Characterization of a novel picornavirus isolate from a diseased European eel (Anguilla anguilla). J. Virol. 87: 10895-10899. [Epub 2013 Jul 24]

Mor, S.K., Phelps, N.B., Barbknecht, M., Hoffman, M.A. and Goyal, S.M. (2015). A multiplex RT-PCR assay for the detection of fish picornaviruses. J. Virol. Methods 221: 131-134.

Philipps, A., Dauber, M., Fichtner, D., Groth, M., Wutzler, P. and Zell, R. (2010). Sequencing of a fish virus reveals a novel picornavirus lineage. EUROPIC 2010: XVI Meeting of the European Study Group on the Molecular Biology of Picornaviruses, St. Andrews, Scotland, 11-16 September 2010. Abstract G9, p. 132.